Unexpected Attack
by Gin
Summary: A day goes very wrong, very quickly and the team must deal with the aftermath. Warnings: Slash
1. Chapter 1

Title: Unexpected Attack

Author: Ginny  
Fandom: CSI:NY  
Trio: Mac/Danny/Don  
Disclaimer: No one is mine, I'm just borrowing for a bit  
Warnings: Slash, threesome, angst - the usual, not really warnings when you know that I'm the author  
Rating: FRM  
10 Per Genre: Action/Adventure Prompt 10: Attacked  
Beta: The Nuts  
Summary: After an attack outside the precinct, they all have to deal with the aftermath  
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to Kathie and Dee who put up with me while I struggled to write this, gave me suggestions, and rewrote scenes that simply wouldn't cooperate. hugs to both of you Also, I named the Duty Captain from RS, RD because I needed a counter-part to Captain Gerrard. I might be wrong, but in this one, if Gerrard is Don's boss, the Duty Captain is Mac's.

* * *

"I still don't think the husband did it," Stella said as she, Mac, Danny and Don walked down the front steps of the building, seeking fresh air and good coffee. "The evidence just doesn't support it." 

"What do you mean it doesn't support it? His fingerprints were on the gun," Mac pointed out. "Not to mention–" his protest was cut off as the sharp crack of bullets filled the air.

Mac reached for his gun but was thrown backward by the impact of a bullet, falling silently as blood poured from the wound in his chest.

Stella, Danny and Don dropped to the ground immediately, pulling their weapons. Danny pushed himself up and crawled over to Mac, ignoring the danger, when he heard the labored breathing coming from the other man.

"Get down Messer," Don snarled as a bullet flew over his head. This was ridiculous, they were outside a police station! How the hell was this happening?

Danny ignored him as he pressed his hands against the bleeding wound, talking frantically to Mac. "It's nothing Mac. Just a graze. You're going to be just fine. Breathe, that's all you have to do. Breathe Mac," he ordered him, staring into his eyes. "Everything's going to be fine."

Mac choked on his own blood as he stared into the frantic eyes of his lover. He tried to speak, but the pain was overwhelming. "L - love," he managed.

Danny shook his head. "Don't speak. Don't you dare say that. You're going to be fine. Just fine," he insisted, ignoring Don's angry screams to get down out of the paths of the bullets.

Mac lifted his hand, wanting to reassure Danny that he'd be fine, but didn't have the strength to raise it more than a few inches.

Danny grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. "You're going to be fine. You're Mac Taylor, nothing can take you down." He tried to smile. "Keep your eyes open Mac, okay? Just a little bit longer," he pleaded when Mac's eyes drifted closed. "Mac! Mac!" he shouted. Visions of Aiden, Stella and Louie filled his vision and he ruthlessly pushed away any thought of doing anything other than trying to save Mac's life. He grunted when a hand grabbed his ankle and pulled, forcing him to fall to the ground.

There were a few more seconds of bullets flying overhead, hitting the building and then backup came running around from the side of the building before, finally, silence fell over them. It seemed like a tangible thing it was so heavy, colors were muted and everything seemed to have soft, blurred edges. After a second that lasted forever, the world reverted back into focus and Stella, Don and Danny jumped back into action.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Danny yelled at Don. "I need to keep pressure on the wound."

"Me? What the fuck is wrong with you, Messer! When bullets are flying toward your head, you stay down, you don't put yourself in their way!" Don screamed angrily. He had honestly thought that this was going to end with both of his lovers lying dead three feet away from him.

Danny ignored him, instead focusing on watching Mac's struggle to breathe. He couldn't do this again. It was too much. As he pressed against the wound, he willed Mac's lungs to fill with air and the bleeding to stop. He was too freaked out by the blood that kept seeping through his fingers. When hands tried to pull him away, he struggled until it finally registered that it was the paramedics.

Stella, Danny and Don let themselves be led from the steps as the paramedics worked feverishly over Mac, trying to get him stabilized as they loaded him onto a stretcher. They could see Hawkes and Lindsay standing at the front of the crowd at the top of the stairs, watching their friends nervously. Right now, this was a rescue effort, not a scene to be investigated.

"Can I get the three of you to sit down please?" a paramedic asked the three of them sympathetically.

Stella stared at her for a long moment before recognizing her as Kara Cassidy, one of the paramedics that they saw on a semi-regular basis.

"I'm not hurt," Stella assured her, looking over at Don and Danny who both shook their heads.

"You're bleeding," Kara pointed out, "And Detective Messer is covered in blood."

"It's not my blood," Danny said quietly.

"It's just a scrape."

"Sit down Stel," Don told her, taking her arm carefully and lowering her to the ground. "It's not."

It was only then that she realized her arm was on fire and blood was running down to her wrist. "Oh," she said in surprise. "I didn't realize."

"You too Danny," Don ordered. He could see other officers taking control. Captain Gerrard was out, shouting orders along with the Duty Captain, Richard Smith. Right now, all he had to do was make sure his friends were safe and not tear someone's head off in his terror about Mac. That could come later.

"I'm fine," Danny said stubbornly, clenching his hands into fists as he struggled to get his rage, anger, and worry about Mac under control.

"Sit down."

"Don."

It was one word, but Don knew exactly what Danny was requesting. He was begging for the few moments he needed to calm himself. Don realized that if Danny allowed himself to give into a few moments of weakness, he'd break down completely and none of them could do that just yet.

"All right," he agreed reluctantly. It sucked, the things he wanted to do more than anything were the things he absolutely wasn't allowed to do. He couldn't stay with Mac, promising him that everything was going to be okay. He couldn't wrap his arms around Danny and promise him the same. All he could do was stand here and struggle to hold onto his professionalism.

Everyone flinched slightly when the first ambulance peeled away, its sirens blaring. Don and Danny both watched it until it turned a corner and disappeared from sight. One shuddering breath later and they once more focused on the scene around them.

"This isn't stopping bleeding," Kara told Stella. "I'd like to get you to the hospital too."

"No." Stella shook her head. "I can't. I need to be here."

"I really think that all three of you need to go to the hospital and be checked over," Kara insisted. "At the very least, you're all in shock, I'd like to make sure that none of you are hurt worse than you think."

Stella shook her head again. "We need to run this scene. Lindsay and Hawkes ... I'm not leaving them alone to deal with this," she explained. Mac was ... momentarily out of commission, she refused to think anything else. If she and Danny both left that left just the other two. They were good, but neither had the experience that was going to be needed to control this.

"Go to the hospital Stella," Danny said calmly. "Make sure you're okay, check on Mac and then come back and we'll catch the bastards."

She stared at him for several long moments, debating what to do. Her arm was numb and she knew it needed attention, but it went against every instinct to leave. She could see that Danny was once more in control of himself and wasn't worried about that. She knew she could trust him to lead this, but she also knew it was going to cost him in the end.

"Go," Don urged her, "Danny says he's fine" He sent Danny a warning look and the shorter man nodded. "We can handle things here. Besides," he let his voice drop, "We need someone to check on Mac. Please."

She hesitated for a few more seconds before nodding. "All right. I'll be back as soon as I can." They both smiled at her and she let herself be led toward another waiting ambulance. She'd take a step back for now, but only for the moment. They were going to make sure whoever was behind this paid and she needed to be healthy for that.

* * *

Lindsay and Hawkes bolted to Don and Danny as soon as the path was clear. 

"Oh my..." Lindsay's eyes grew wide when she saw Danny up close. "Why are you still here? You should be–"

"None of it's my blood," he told her harshly. She paled in understanding. "Lindsay, I need you to finish taking pictures of this. Hawkes, you–"

"Detective Messer," a voice broke in. They all looked over to see Duty Captain Smith standing next to them. "You don't need to lead this."

Danny scowled. "With all due respect Sir, I do. Mac's – Mac's unable to and Stella isn't here at the moment, which means that I'm in charge."

"You were involved with this. None of you should be involved," Captain Gerrard interrupted as he joined them.

Danny's chin rose stubbornly. "We're the best CSIs this city has to offer. I'll keep my hands off the evidence, if that's what concerns you, but we're not letting this go to another team. Sir."

They stared at each other for a long minute, everyone around them holding their breath. "That's not necessary, " Smith said, nodding once.

"I really don't think they should be involved," Gerrard insisted.

Smith's gaze was calm as he said, "They're the best CSIs the city has to offer. I won't have anyone else investigating this. No one does something like this and gets away with it." Gerrard bristled, but didn't continue arguing. "Don't be afraid to ask for help," Smith told Danny.

"I won't," Danny promised. Too much rested on them doing a good job for him to let his pride get in the way.

"Keep me informed. No one does this on my watch and gets away with it," he told them, scowling, before both of them stormed away to bark more orders at their officers.

"Get to work," Danny ordered the other two.

Lindsay nodded, picked up her camera, and got back to work.

"It would probably be a good idea if I bagged your shirt," Hawkes suggested quietly.

Danny nodded, looking down at his ruined shirt and blood stained hands. He was going to have to change before he could work anyway. "Let's go to the locker room then," he agreed and headed into the building.

"Why don't you come with us," Hawkes suggested to Don. "Then I could make sure that you're really okay too."

Don only nodded and followed Danny into the building, knowing that Hawkes would be only a few steps behind them. He wasn't ready to let Danny out of his sight just yet, needing to reassure himself that life hadn't completely gone to hell.

"You want your change of clothes?" Danny asked Don, his voice muffled slightly by the locker door as he reached in to pull out his own clothes.

Don glanced down. While he wasn't covered in ... he quickly cut off that line of thought. "Sure," he agreed and caught the clothes Danny tossed his way.

"You keep a spare set in Danny's locker?" Hawkes asked with a smirk.

Don shrugged, "Why not? I probably spend more time in the labs than I do at my own desk." They both looked over at Danny when he hissed while removing his shirt. "I thought you said you weren't hurt," Don accused him, catching sight of the bright red gouge in his side.

"I'm not, I didn't realize I was," Danny admitted, looking down. "It's fine Don, not even bleeding."

"I'll be the judge of that," Hawkes insisted, moving over to take a closer look.

"Damn Doc!" Danny hissed when Hawkes pressed at it.

"You're fine. You won't even need stitches. I'll put a bandage over it after you clean up."

Danny stared at his hands and chest, realizing just how deeply the blood had saturated into his clothes and onto him. "Yeah," he agreed, fiercely pushing away the wave of nausea.

He handed Hawkes his ruined shirt and headed for the showers. "Bag and tag. I want surveillance tapes. I want photos circulated. I want their heads on platters," he ordered Hawkes.

Hawkes nodded, catching onto what Danny needed. "Gotcha," he promised. He handed a bandage, pulled from his own locker, to Don and hurried back to work.

Don waited until the door was closed before wrapping his arms around Danny from behind, squeezing gently.

Danny shuddered, struggling to hold onto his control and he could feel Don doing the same thing. "He's going to be fine, right?"

"Right," Don agreed. "He's Mac."

"I need to get cleaned up, get this off of me," Danny whispered.

Don pressed a kiss into his hair and released him. "I'll be here. I'm not going back down until you're ready to go too."

"Ten minutes," Danny promised. That's all the time he could give himself before he'd have to be down there, making sure that everything went smoothly. "Don?"

"Yeah?"

"We'll get through this."

Don gave him a small smile and nodded. "We will."

* * *

"Danny!" Hawkes summoned, hurrying over to him. 

"What do you have?"

"Surveillance photos of our shooters," Hawkes told him, grinning proudly. He handed Danny a stack of photos. "And I know who some of them are."

"Really?" Danny asked, taking the stack and flipping through them. "You're right," he realized. None of them had committed major crimes, but they'd all drifted across their radar at one point.

"I told Flack. He's put an APB out on them."

"Good," Danny nodded just as his phone rang. "It's Stella." Hawkes nodded, not saying anything, but was obviously listening intently. "Talk to me Stel," Danny answered. It had been an excruciatingly long two hours since she'd left.

"How are you? Good. How is? Right. Okay. That bad? Okay. We have IDs on several of them, they should be rounded up soon. How long until you're back? Great, see you then." He hung up and saw Hawkes staring at him.

"Well?" he demanded.

Danny looked over to see Don and Lindsay staring at him too.

"She's okay. She has six stitches and will be back here within twenty minutes," he told them. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Mac's in surgery. He will be for the next few hours. The bullet," he paused, taking another deep breath, "It punctured a lung, broke a rib, she wasn't exactly sure of all the damage. Umm... They umm... They're not sure he's going to make it."

"What are his chances?" Hawkes asked quietly.

"She didn't say," Danny said quickly. "I'd really like to be able to tell Stella we have the fucking assholes sitting in the interrogation room waiting for her, what's the status on our APB?"

"Maka and Scagnetti are out now. We think we spotted one of them," Don said, watching his lover closely. He knew that Danny was keeping something from him.

"Good. Keep me informed. You two, make sure that evidence gets processed. I want this by the book, no loose ends or loopholes. Got it?"

"Got it," they both said and hurried back to work.

"Danny," Don said quietly.

Danny shook his head and forced a smile, "It's Mac, he's going to be fine."

"All right," Don said finally, "But if I find out you're keeping something from me, I'm going to kick your ass," he warned. Danny managed a smirk and shooed him away.

Only when he was alone did he allow himself to grip the table as fear and grief overwhelmed him. He took several harsh, deep breaths before forcing the emotions away and gripping his professionalism with everything that he had. He had a job to do. Worry would come later.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

"You okay?" Danny asked Stella when she returned.

"I'm fine," she said with a smile. She moved her arm around to prove it. "A couple of pain killers and it's like nothing ever happened. Just don't ask me to pitch for a few days."

He smirked before filling her in. "Hawkes and Lindsay are still processing evidence. Maka and Scagnetti are bringing in two of our suspects."

"Do you want to sit in on the interrogation?" She asked as they debated their next move.

"No, you can. I'm going to go down to the morgue and get samples from the guy," Danny decided finally. "Let me know what happens?"

"Of course," she smiled sympathetically.

He hurried to the elevator, not noticing that Lindsay had come up behind them or the look she was giving him.

* * *

"You're something else, you know that?" Lindsay said angrily, stepping in front of Danny when he went to leave the morgue with everything Sid had given him.

"What?"

"I don't get you sometimes. One of your lovers was shot and is lying in the hospital. What are you doing? Running around here, like you're not even concerned. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Danny scowled. "Shut the hell up Montana, you don't know what you're talking about."

"We're supposed to believe that you love him and you're barely asking about him," she pointed out loudly.

Danny grabbed her arm and dragged her into the nearest office, slamming the door shut behind them. "Sit down!" he ordered her angrily. She thought about refusing, but thought better of it.

"Don't talk!" he shouted when she opened her mouth. "I don't care? Is that what you're trying to say? And that I don't deserve to have someone like Mac in my life? Did it ever occur to you that I can't think about it Lindsay. He's dying and there isn't one fucking thing I can do! All I can do is catch the damn bastards that did this and pray that he makes it out of surgery. Give me a break here Lindsay, I'm doing the best I can, trying to keep everything from falling apart. And here you are, giving away my relationship in front of anyone. How fucking stupid are you?"

"Hey! I don't deserve that!" she tried to respond angrily, but too many of his first words had hit home.

"You announced to whoever happened to be lurking in the shadows that I'm sleeping with Mac and that there's a third person in our relationship. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that would be Don. You're smarter than that Lindsay! You know that everything depends on keeping our relationship from the wrong eyes."

"I didn't mean to. I'm just a bit shaken up."

Danny laughed harshly. "You're shaken up? Talk to me after you've had bullets flying at your head while you're watching someone you love more than life itself bleed out. If you can't handle this, you need to tell me. I can't have you working the case."

She was quiet for several seconds. She had been terrified when they'd been trapped in the building, knowing that her friends and teammates had been in danger. She'd been even more terrified when they'd taken Mac away to surgery and Stella had followed shortly. She hadn't understood how Danny could be so calm, but now it finally made sense. He had to be or he'd lose it completely and they couldn't have that yet.

"I can handle it," she said quietly.

"You're sure?"

She nodded.

"Good."

"Excuse me," a voice summoned from the door. "If you're done shouting, could I have my office back now?"

"Sorry Peyton," Danny apologized immediately, his shoulders tensing even more. "We're done now. Headed back to work, right?"

"Right," Lindsay agreed, jumping up. "I'll let you know as soon as I get the results."

"Thanks," he told her.

"Sorry," she said quietly and hurried back to work.

Danny slowly followed after her, but stopped when Peyton put a hand on his arm. He worked hard to suppress the flinch. He liked Peyton ... okay, he didn't like her, but he tried to like her. She and Mac were friends and just because she had the tendency to annoy him didn't make her a bad person.

"He's going to be fine Danny. I've never known Mac to let anything stop him, not even a bullet," Peyton smiled at him.

"I'm sure you're right," he forced himself to smile. "But he's my boss, I worry."

"I've known Mac for years. I probably know him better than anyone but Stella and the mysterious people that have caught his attention for the moment. Mac won't let this keep him down."

"I'm sure you're right," he said again. "If you'll excuse me, work calls."

"Of course," she agreed, smiling pleasantly and releasing his arm.

He hurried back to the labs, trying to shake the feeling that he was missing something important.

* * *

"Danny!" Lindsay summoned when the elevator doors opened. "I was just going to get you, come on!"

"Where are we going?" he asked as she pulled him down the hall.

"Observation room. The guys we arrested are confessing. They seem to think that if we release them, the people that hired them will kill them themselves."

"What?"

"They don't know names, but two women hired them. They're working with a sketch artist now."

Danny rushed toward the room, nearly running into Stella who emerged from the interrogation room at a run. "Stella! Do we know who they are?"

"Look," she said, thrusting the notepad at him. Danny stared at the face on the paper, trying to figure out where he'd seen her before. "Rose," he snarled. "I told him she was a stalker. Who's the other one?"

"We don't know. They never saw her."

"But we do know where to find Rose," Don announced, joining them.

"Where?"

"A nightclub off of 2nd and 1st. She just text messaged them to meet her and discuss their next job. Apparently she's giving them one more try to get their real targets."

"Who are the real targets?" Danny asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

Don scowled. "We are."

Danny's hand tightened around the paper he held, as he bit back the temper tantrum that threatened. "I see."

"I'm going to go set up the trap for her. With any luck, this'll all be over in a few hours," Don said. He was calm, but his anger radiated.

"Thanks Don. We'll let you know what else we find," Stella said.

"Can I talk to ya for sec before you go?" Danny asked suddenly.

"Sure," Don agreed instantly, leading him to one of the small meeting rooms. "What's up?"

"I haven't been completely honest with you," Danny admitted, jamming his hands into his pockets. "Mac ... he's not doing very well," he admitted, flinching away as he waited for Don's outburst. When none came, he looked up and saw Don smiling at him.

"I know."

"How? Aren't you mad?"

"Because I know you. I was furious at first, thinking that you were keeping something from me. But I thought about it for a bit and I might've done the same thing if I was you. We're both struggling to keep our head in the game and any distraction at all is gonna cost us."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kept it from you, I just couldn't bring myself to say it out loud."

"I know." Don gave him a small smile and pulled him close for a hug. "Love ya Dan."

"I love you too. Be careful. Please," Danny requested, holding onto him tightly.

"I promise," Don assured him. They took a few more moments to themselves before pulling apart, once more the professional detectives that they were. "Let's get the bitch," Don said.

Danny's answering grin was feral. Whoever else was behind this was going to regret it.

TBC


End file.
